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Monetary Unit Sampling - Example

This example has the following characteristics.

Fixed-interval Method

Because the starting value is 4 with an interval of 10, the 4th, 14th, 24th and so on, dollars are selected. Line 1 includes the 4th dollar, so is selected. The 14th dollar is included in line 3, in which the accumulated total has reached 14 (5+3+6). The third selection is from line 8 because the total is 28 (5+3+6+2+4+1+7). Note that line 7 is not included in the sample because it is top stratum so is automatically reported.

Cell (Random Interval) Method

The interval is 10, so the dollars in the file are broken into groups of $10. The first group contains the $5 from line 1, the $3 from line 2 and $2 of the $6 from line 3. Assume that one of the first $5 is chosen. The second group contains the $4 remainder of line 3, the $2 from line 4 and the $4 from line 5. Again, we are assuming that one of the last $4 in that group was chosen.

Line 9 shows that the $4 item is selected twice because a portion of the item falls into each group. Also notice that the $9 item in line 15 is not selected, even though it is quite large. This is because the amount is spread across two groups and neither portion is selected.

Random Method

We assume that the 10 random values between 1 and 100 are 4, 13, 15, 37, 42, 56, 59, 80, 89 and 93. The $12 item on line 7 is not selected, even though it was considered top stratum in the previous two samples. The $33 item is selected 3 times because of the range of dollars it covers.